Did you try to boot the livedvd-amd64-multilib-20121221.iso from a dvd media? What did you used to adapt the iso image to the USB stick? Some iso failed to boot on a stick, the node for cd/dvd do not exist, only the one for the stick, or the cd/dvd node exist, but there's no media in the cd/dvd to search for at boot time.

Boot the iso image from a native dvd media if you can. It have more chances to not fail._________________Paul

Thanks for the previous replies.
Unfortunately I don't have a DVD burner, and I don't have an optical drive on the machine I'm trying to boot.

Booting was done from a usb stick created with http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/, which worked fine with the earlier 2012 live DVD. So something has changed between the two and I though that by posting the screen text it might help someone in the know to pinpoint the difference.

I just wish I had kept that .iso before downloading the current "End of the World" release, but available disk space is limited. I'm now trying to boot with the SystemRescueCD (which is a smaller/quicker download) as all I want to do at this stage is check the partitioning layout of my old Gentoo system disk in order to plan a new one for a new Gentoo system. There are also some wireless drivers on it I need to get the new system networked.

The machine I'm creating the USB stick from is a WindowsXP machine, so I don't think the suggestion to use dd will work, but thanks for the suggestion. The Gentoo box was put away about 2 years ago as the room it was in was being done up. When I next tried to update/run portage it failed and searching on these forums suggested the problems in updating after that length of time were greater than a clean install. Also as I want to replace the WindowsXP machine (as XP nears end of life and nobody seems to rate Windows8) new hardware was in order too, so all that remains of the old system are the disks and case.

However it occurs to me that the disk I'm trying to examine has a bootable Gentoo system on it, even if it is x86 rather than amd64 which is what the new hardware is, so I might try booting from it to see what happens, I don't think there is anything to loose.

Unfortunately we have gone over our download quota this month so any further downloads (e.g. reverting to the older live dvd .iso) will have to wait till next month/year.

However it occurs to me that the disk I'm trying to examine has a bootable Gentoo system on it, even if it is x86 rather than amd64 which is what the new hardware is, so I might try booting from it to see what happens, I don't think there is anything to loose.

if you get to a terminal just run dd on the iso image and then reboot using the usb stick. I think not all unetbootin implementations work for everyone since the iso is already usb ready, you might also want to try booting with some of the usb options on the unetbootin image you created to see if it's a problem with your usb device not settling in time.

boot a livecd (e.g. sysrescuecd - with 'docache' if you only have one accessible USB port). Booting from such a livecd will NOT make any changes to your windows install
toss in your usb stick
install grub2 on the usb drive
add grub.cfg entries like

I currently have my "swiss army knife" thumb drive - a 16GB SanDisk - set up in this way, booting Gentoo LiveDVD, SysRescueCD, and BackTrack5, all directly from the iso.

and no, this cant be done from within Windows. There may be windows tools that will try to grant you this functionality. They suck. I say that not as a linux fanboy, but as someone stuck with Windows for certain tasks at work._________________Lost configuring your system?
dump lspci -n here | see Pappy's guide | Link Stash

Just to bring this thread to an end I'll let you know that I redid putting the LiveDVD on my memory stick, but on this occasion it failed. Comparing the size of the USB memory stick (4Gb) with the size of the DVD, the DVD is bigger so it is no wonder it failed. (Hint to the DVD assemblers, it might be an idea to keep the size down so it can fit on a 4G memory stick.) It probably failed the first time too but how I missed it I don't know.

What I then did was to get the SystemRescueCD (use google to find it) and create a bootable USB stick to boot that. I then just followed the Gentoo Install handbook and eventually got a kernel installed that I could boot into. Once past that stage it becomes a lot easier to get ahead as you don't have to manually type all the commands and chmod each time you power on your PC.

Just to bring this thread to an end I'll let you know that I redid putting the LiveDVD on my memory stick, but on this occasion it failed. Comparing the size of the USB memory stick (4Gb) with the size of the DVD, the DVD is bigger so it is no wonder it failed. (Hint to the DVD assemblers, it might be an idea to keep the size down so it can fit on a 4G memory stick.) It probably failed the first time too but how I missed it I don't know.

thanks, i will keep that in mind for the next livedvd iso. My limit was 4.4G so it can be burned to a DVD but I never thought about usb sticks that are only 4G in size. I will only need to trim around 300MB in order to stay below the 4G limit.